The commonest cancer amongst women in India. Begins in the cervix (lower part of the uterus or the womb). Accounts for over 1,50,000 new cases a year i.e. about one new case diagnosed every 3 minutes. At the same time, it is the most preventable cancer and one that can be most easily diagnosed by routine PAPS smear, HPV DNA testing and colposcopy – all provided by a specialist gynaecologic oncologist.
Begins in the ovaries located one on each side of the uterus. Accounts for over 30,000 new cases a year in India, and is an aggressive disease with over 75% mortality. Current newer radical surgical approaches have drastically improved survival. The gynae-oncology team is highly trained, experienced and equipped for providing the best and most advanced surgical approaches to ovarian cancer.
Over 20,000 new cases a year. Treatment is essentially surgical and involves an extensive surgical approach (“Surgical Staging”) as laid down by the FIGO (the international federation of gynaecologist and obstetrician). Having care by a gynecologic oncologist benefits women with endometrial cancer through the provision of comprehensive surgical staging which gives important information about their risk for cancer recurrence and allows the patient and her gynecologic oncologist to make informed and appropriate choices about whether to get radiation therapy or chemotherapy after surgery.
These are rare, and require a high index of suspicion on the part of the gynaecologist to catch them in the early stages and requires special expertise to make the diagnosis, evaluate the extent of disease and develop a plan for treatment. Gynaecologic oncologists have had years of speciality training to acquire the skills needed to evaluate and treat all gynaecologic cancer including vaginal and vulvar cancers.
Cancers arising from pregnancy and cancers occurring during pregnancy are a unique set of diseases. Neither are the obstetricians nor is the oncologist very comfortable dealing with this unique condition. The gynae-oncologist, who has been initially trained as an obstetrician & gynaecologist and then later as an oncologist, has the specific expertise to deal with this unique condition.
Precancerous Conditions of the cervix are changes to cervical cells that make them more likely to develop into cancer.
These conditions are not yet cancer. But if they are left untreated, there is a chance that these abnormal changes may become Cervical Cancer.
Most women treated for precancerous conditions of the cervix have an excellent outcome and their condition will not develop into cervical cancer.
Mild changes to the cervix often return to normal on their own without any treatment.
It is hard to predict when this condition will become invasive cervical cancer, so they are usually treated as soon as they are diagnosed.
Cancer like conditions such as pelvic tuberculosis (It may be present for 10 to 20 years without producing any symptoms. Infertility is often one, and sometimes the only, reason that women investigate for the presence of the condition), extensive endometriosis (an often painful disorder in which tissue that normally lines the inside of your uterus called the endometrium, grows outside your uterus) and difficult surgical conditions in the pelvis.
